Romans 9

Israel’s Rejection Considered

9:11 I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me2 in the Holy Spirit – 9:2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.3 9:3 For I could wish4 that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people,5 my fellow countrymen,6 9:4 who are Israelites. To them belong7 the adoption as sons,8 the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship,9 and the promises. 9:5 To them belong the patriarchs,10 and from them,11 by human descent,12 came the Christ,13 who is God over all, blessed forever!14 Amen.

9:6 It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel,15 9:7 nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.”16 9:8 This means17 it is not the children of the flesh18 who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants. 9:9 For this is what the promise declared:19About a year from now20 I will return and Sarah will have a son.”21 9:10 Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man,22 our ancestor Isaac – 9:11 even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election23 would stand, not by works but by24 his calling)259:1226 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,”27 9:13 just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”28

9:14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! 9:15 For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”29 9:16 So then,30 it does not depend on human desire or exertion,31 but on God who shows mercy. 9:17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh:32For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”33 9:18 So then,34 God35 has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.36

9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being37 – to talk back to God?38 Does what is molded say to the molder, Why have you made me like this?39 9:21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay40 one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use?41 9:22 But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects42 of wrath43 prepared for destruction?44 9:23 And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects45 of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory – 9:24 even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 9:25 As he also says in Hosea:

I will call those who were not my people, My people, and I will call her who was unloved,46 My beloved.’”47

9:26And in the very place48 where it was said to them, You are not my people,

there they will be called sons of the living God.’”49

9:27 And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children50 of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, 9:28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.”51 9:29 Just52 as Isaiah predicted,

If the Lord of armies53 had not left us descendants,

we would have become like Sodom,

and we would have resembled Gomorrah.”54

Israel’s Rejection Culpable

9:30 What shall we say then? – that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness obtained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith, 9:31 but Israel even though pursuing55 a law of righteousness56 did not attain it.57 9:32 Why not? Because they pursued58 it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works.59 They stumbled over the stumbling stone,60 9:33 just as it is written,

Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble

and a rock that will make them fall,61

yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.62

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